Demon Rising
by Nemesis13
Summary: Duo Maxwell had the misfortune of being pulled away from his world yet the fortune of crashing in the only country he would ever be willing to support, how will Cagalli and Kira's destinies change in the presence of the God of Death?
1. Chapter 1

**This plot bunny has been haunting me for like, three years, if I get any response to it I'll write more then the prologue I'm just glad to finally get this out of my damn head, enjoy!**

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_**A Brief Prolouge-Demon Rising**_

_**Low Earth Orbit, Next to Derelict Libra Fragment**_

Duo Maxwell was many many things, an orphan, a thief, a good friend, a mechanic, an engineering savant, a freedom fighter, and most importantly a Gundam pilot. What Duo was not was a quantum physicist, or anything even vaguely related to the subject; so when Heero fired Wing Zero's mega particle cannon at the falling wreckage of Libra he had no idea that the anti-matter fueled explosion was squared by the dying battleships ruptured fusion reactors.

What he was aware of was that the Deathscythe Hell was about to be caught in the wake of the explosion; as the distorted energy wave of ...chaos... atomized all the debris and mobile dolls surrounding him he only had one choice available.

"Come on old buddy don't give out on me now!" Wrapping his mobile suit in the embracing cocoon of its demonic wings Duo dumped all available power into the integrated shielding system the mad five had ganked from the Mercurius. As he turtled the violet eyed young man stared down in horror at his gauges, the gamma radiation levels were high enough that there was not a chance anything other then his stalwart Gundam would survive the onslaught.

With that cheery thought everything went white, then black, then chartreuse, and there might have even been some plaid in there, he really wasn't certain due to the blood seeping out of his nose, ears, and eyes. After a time the shaking stopped and the local radiation levels went back down to normal, groggily rubbing his head Duo wiped the blood from his eyes and attempted to get his bearings and what his instruments displayed both confused and terrified him.

"No local debris fields...well that ain't right...no active IFF's, no local comm chatter, and no sign of two Star Destroyer sized battleships slammed into each other falling towards the Earth...huh..." Risking the chance of discovery he flipped off the Gundams passive sensors and did an active scan of the area, the results were shocking,

"No colonies...the colonies are gone?! Only active concentration large enough to detect is out by L5..." his musings were cut short by an annoying warning klaxon, glancing down he let off a string of curses that would have made Quatre blush and Howard nod in approval. It figured that while sight seeing he'd fall into Earths gravity well, glaring at his instruments his maps showed that he was going to fall somewhere in the south pacific east of New Guinea.

Grimacing at that he shook his head in resignation, "Nothing out that way but water and whales, I'll have enough propellant to slow me down but not nearly enough to get to dry land...shit." As he fell through the atmosphere he reflected on everything he'd accomplished, he'd helped topple the Earth Alliance who had been responsible for the deaths of his adopted family at the Maxwell church, he'd helped gut Oz the puppet of the money grubbing Romefellar Foundation, and he'd made great friends and blown up some very interesting things along the way.

His only true regret was, sadly, having no freaking idea where or when he was, unlike his fellow pilots Duo was a child of late night movies and a fan of stupid conspiracy theories; it was obvious to him that he'd ended up in an alternate dimension, or the past, or some such bull, the lack of four entire colony clusters easily corroborated that theory. Grumbling about wasted efforts his sensors picked up something...interesting,

"Why is there an island chain were there should be open water? Oh...k...rock on!" Now grinning he gently nudged his free falling mobile suit to the largest island and activated his stealth systems, hopefully the battered Gundam could keep the cloak field up long enough to avoid getting shot at. Burning up the last of his propellant the Deathscythe lightly touched down in a rather pretty forest with nothing but fumes left in its tanks.

Bringing the war machine to a crouch Duo let out a brief laugh, the exhaustion driven stress of a solid year of war finally caught up with him as he relaxed against his crash webbing, "The God of Death survives again...right now though...I need some sleep." And with that he passed out till the next day.

_**Orb Union **_

Duo woke up groggily and much to his annoyance still caked in blood from his little transition to wherever the hell he was, popping the Deathscythe's hatch he stumbled away from the stealthed mobile suit and fell to his knees next to a small spring. Scrubbing his face clean he let his hands linger a moment as the cool water dripped down his chin,

"Well Heero, you always wanted me out of your hair, I guess we'll call our prank war a draw if you tossed me as far from home as I think you did." Honestly, it had to be pretty damn far away since on his Earth there was no archipelago in this area, just open ocean. With that thought curiosity got the better of him, shaking the now lukewarm water from his head he shook his dripping bangs as he marched back to Deathscythe, riding the winch back up to the cockpit he got to work.

After a few minutes he managed to get an uplink to a local internet hub, the signal was weak but it would do for the time being; what he found truly interesting was how shitty the programming was. He was no hardcore programmer like Heero or Trowa, his skills lay in the realm of hacking but even _he_ could have written better security protocols, grumbling about the end result of hiring grad students he went to work figuring out what the hell was going on.

"Ok...Earth Federation, still assholes in this timeline, PLANTs, fans of clunky acronyms who are genetically modified and called coordinators...wonder what they'd all think if they knew everyone from the colonies had to have some genetic rewrite to survive...space racists...who knew..." Mumbling to himself further he finally found his location and he liked what he saw.

"Hmm...Orb Union, been established for over fifty years, weirdish nobility/democracy hybrid, no discrimination between natural humans and coordinators, refuses to take part or intervene in anyone elses wars but has a standing army and navy to protect itself. Neat, its like the Sanc Kingdom without the hypocrisy," deciding that he needed to see this place for himself Duo created a false identity in the local database and opened a checking account for himself.

After a bit of creative banking he stole a few hundred thousand dollars to get himself established, stripping out of his bloody flight suit he pulled on his old priest outfit and disembarked from his Gundam. Glancing up at the crouched war machine he grinned again, "Wait on me buddy, I'll be back when I figure out what we're up against, rest well." With that he clicked a button on the FOB in his hand and the Deathscythe vanished from sight.

_**Six Months Later**_

Duo stared in shock at the images displayed on the bars television, the feds had nuked the agricultural colony of Junius Seven, millions were assumed dead as the hourglass shaped structure disintegrated in radioactive fire. Finishing his glass of scotch he glared at the screen,

"Say this about Oz, outside of that one time with Une no one ever even attempted to lob nukes at military targets, much less civilians." It was much worse then all that though, less then 24 hours after the attack PLANT had ordered their military arm ZAFT to drop neutron jammers across the Earth in retaliation, effectively cutting the power to anyone still using the outdated fission reactors this universe was fond of.

War, war, war, it never changed and the constant escalation was going to get even worse, ZAFT had launched their new mobile weapons, the GINN against the EF forces and of course were slaughtering them because Mobile Suits trump everything else. Mulling his options Duo glanced up to the ceiling, "What would you do Heero...Quatre? I have the means to protect my new home but would that make matters better or worse..."

He honestly didn't know, he had the schematics for all of Oz's little toys aboard the Deathscythe, and his six months of recon had told him he really rather enjoyed being in Orb, the idea they could be dragged into this bullshit war irritated him beyond words. Sighing he realized he'd already made his decision before he'd even thought about it, standing up and throwing the barkeep a twenty note he walked out into the sunlight while shoving his hands into his jackets pockets.

"Welp, looks like I'm breaking into Lord Uzumi's office tonight, hehe...should probably record this one."

_**That Evening, Onogoro Island, Orb Union, Lord Uzumi Nara Athha's Office**_

Cagalli Yula Athha trailed after her father as he made his way to his personal offices, the string of meetings following the Earth Federations butchering of Junius Seven and ZAFT's N-Jammer retaliation had consumed his entire day and the man just needed some peace and quiet. After declaring Orb neutral in this fiasco things had settled down to a point but nerves were still on edge, glancing up at her father the blonde asked,

"Do...do you think war will come here father?" Glancing down the goatee'd man just shook his head sadly,

"Cagalli if I could shield you and our nation from the horrors of war forever I'd gladly do so, but I cannot give you any promises," as he said this he opened the office door revealing a pitch black room lit only by his desks monitor. "In truth when men are driven by vengeance they'll simply keep the cycle going. One man is wronged so he retaliates against those that hurt him, those caught in the wake in turn retaliate in turn, it is an endless cycle of misery that draws in even those who want no part."

As he clicked on the lights he just shook his head sadly, "In the end all we can do is prepare ourselves for when others drag us into their conflicts and hope we have the strength to resist." With that a slow clap could be heard from Uzumi's high backed desk chair, after a moment it spun and a grinning young man with violet eyes and and long chestnut brown hair greeted them.

"_That_ Lord Uzumi is exactly the sorta thing I like to hear, I've had to deal with crazy broads rambling about total pacifism, equally crazy people with creepy eyebrows rambling about the beauty of war, and yet so few who actually want to sit tight and let the idiots duke it while they hold the biggest stick to swat down those that wanna drag them in, I like you." The Lion and Princess of Orb stared in shock at the cheeky young man who then threw his booted feet up onto the desk and put his hands behind his head, still grinning like nothing was out of the ordinary.

Cagalli for her part let her firecracker temper go as she snapped out,

"Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my fathers office!?" Grinning even wider the youth dove out of the chair with unexpected grace and flipped over the desk, ending up standing before the pair he gave them a mocking bow.

"Names Duo Maxwell, I may run and hide but I'll never tell a lie, me in a nut shell gorgeous, and why I'm here is simple, I want to save our nation." Blushing at that her retort was cut short as her father stepped in front of her,

"Very well young man, you obviously have some talents making it past our security so what is it you propose?" Sighing he once again put his hands behind his head as he began pacing,

"You have undoubtedly heard how ZAFT's GINN's are kicking the ever loving shit out of the EF's Mobius forces right?" Wincing slightly at the coarse language the Chief Representative nodded, with that Duo continued, "Well ya see being coordinators and all they didn't write a real extensive operating system to pilot the things, they can adjust it on the fly so no real reason to. Now the problem that arises here is that naturals obviously can't pilot MS, I gotta feeling this will be an ongoing issue in the near future." Snorting Cagalli couldn't help but interrupt,

"Its already an issue, a few GINNs ended up on the black market before this war even started and no natural can make heads nor tails of it," smirking at her again the cheeky youth continued as if nothing was said.

"This of course makes matters even more annoying with those N-Jammers they've laced the Earth with, everyone and their mother is having to revert to fossil fuels or batteries since fission reactors are now defunct." Uzumi despite his patient nature was beginning to get annoyed,

"And what pray tell does this have to do with us?" The young mans grin returned in full force as he pulled out a small device that projected several blueprints on the wall,

"Well it just so happens that I'm a rogue engineer and pilot with the blueprints for a variable transforming aerospace Mobile suit and fully functioning cold fusion reactors on top of several varieties of natural friendly Operating Systems, and I wanna give 'em all to you." Both Athha's eyes widened as they gazed at the black mobile suit suit displayed on the wall, before they could say anything Duo finished with,

"Allow me to introduce you to the OZ-12SMS Taurus, Orbs new front line defender."

_**Five Months Later**_

Duo for his part had earned his keep as far as Cagalli was concerned, the teen had spent months refining the Taurus design down to something Orb could handle alongside Morgenroete Inc's chief researcher Erica Simmons. While not ready for full scale production quite yet the secret project and its end result the MVF-M11C Murasme was a cut above anything the Feds or ZAFT would be able to muster against her nation. Duo himself though had become an integral part of the lives of anyone who met him, his easy going attitude, quick wit, and quirky sense of humor endeared him to everyone yet not a soul knew anything about his past.

The only one who came close had to be Erica herself who had been according to Duo "Entrusted with taking care of my best buddy, only she's got the full story and its stay'in that way, sorry beautiful." That aside Orb was well on its way to defending itself in this endlessly escalating war, billions were already dead and both sides forces had been bled so harshly that they were drafting kids her and Duo's ages. It was utter insanity, this war had literally killed off an entire generation and the old bastards on both sides seemed intent and wiping out another, as she fumed at this she finally made her way to Duo's office. Knocking on the door then entering she watched as the braided man glanced up from his terminal grinning widely,

"Princess! To what do I owe this honor of being in the presence of one so radiant?" Resisting the urge to blush because that is _exactly_ what her friend was shooting for she simply marched to his desk and handed him a datapad, glancing at it his good humor fell away. After a few moments smoldering anger could be seen in his violet eyes, "Uzumi would never have ordered this, the toys me and Erica are working on would blow any this shit out of the water." Nodding in agreement Cagalli took a seat across from him,

"Agreed, if I hadn't known about your project I'd have assumed father was working behind all our backs, as it stands it just means one of the other four royal families are working with the feds. Duo I need to know whats going on and I can't trust anyone else with this, I know you're busy with Erica but I need someone I can trust, will you come to Heliopolis with me to check this out?" His eyes looked above his reading glasses and stared at the ceiling tiles for a few moments, after awhile he nodded lightly then grinned at her,

"Ah hell I can never say no to ya amber eyes, of course I'll come with you, let me make some last minute arrangements with my team and we can head out as soon as you wanna." Relaxing at this she smiled in return,

"Thanks Duo, I owe you one."


	2. Chapter 2

_**This...oddly enough wrote itself, I have three other projects I was supposed to work on but this just wouldn't go away, I didn't take the proper care I normally do on grammar and sentence structure but eh...I think you'll get the point. Please, REVIEW!**_

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_**Heliopolis, One week later**_

As Duo and Cagalli made their way though the Morgenroete factory she couldn't help but grit her teeth in rage,

"Two sets of hyper advanced prototypes and a separate group of "Astray" units based off them for mass production, unbelievable, if I didn't know what you and dad were working on I'd think he was a traitor to our ideals." Nodding grimly the leather clad young man beside her glanced about as his hapatic glasses recorded everything he saw,

"Yeah no kidding, I'd say about half the second set in the factory are about ready to roll out and the ones on the floor are already being prepped for transport, those rainbow brigade mass production Gundam knockoffs though...I gotta admit with some proper work they could be fearsome." She agreed then paused, glancing about the random gathering of students she whispered,

"Duo why don't you head back to the factory floor and see what you can find out, I'm gonna go hit the main offices and see if I can weasel some info out of the eggheads. Maybe one of them is dumb enough to slip the family that allowed this crap," Grinning mischievously Duo bowed lightly and drifted off,

"Never fear princess I always got yer back!" Smiling lightly at her companion she turned around and muttered,

"Don't I know it Duo, don't I know it."

_**Factory Conveyor Line**_

Duo quietly walked along the catwalks above the half completed set of mobile suits and examined them with a critical eye, each one resembled the Gundams from his home universe and each one filled a specific role. The thing he couldn't wrap his head around was how bloody useless any of them would be outside their element.

The Heavyarms knockoff had no melee or close range weapons to speak of, the Sandrock proxy had limited armor, the Altron doppelganger was just as limited as Wu-man's machine and don't even get him started on the gods damned Deathscythe wannabe, all your useful weapons on one arm...smart. He liked the Strike though, while not really synonymous with the Wing its variable weapons gave it the chance to mix it up at least.

His thoughts were interrupted when the ground began to shake violently, after a moment a series of explosions ripped through the factory destroying the second lineups Buster and Aegis instantly, thankfully both lacked munitions so cascading explosion damage was minimal. Glancing about a thought hit him seizing his heart in an instant,

'SHIT! Cagalli is caught in this crap!' Glancing about he saw the Strike burning in its construction gantry next to the finished Duel and Blitz, letting out an exasperated sigh Duo made for the ladder and ran around the burning wreckage making his way to the secondary line ups stealth unit

Entering the machine he jammed in the disk containing his personal setting preferences and began a quick rewrite of its substandard maneuvering protocols. He couldn't help but sigh at how primitive this all felt to his precious Deathscythe, ah well couldn't have everything,

"Hope you don't mind big guy but I'm gonna call ya Hades, if they'd named ya 'Blitzkrieg' I might reconsider but "Lightning" just doesn't sit well with me, too flashy." Pausing at his horrible pun he began giggling cheerfully, after a moment his modifications took hold and the war machines phase shift armor activated.

The now Black and red machine walked over to the weapons line and snatched up a spare Schwert Gewehr anti-ship sword; Duo honestly had no idea why the damn thing was called the 'sword gun" but he didn't really care either, he simply felt safer with a big ass melee weapon. Cleaving open the door he stepped through as another series of explosions racked the factory and the secondary lines Strike and Duel exploded in the conflagration.

"What a goddamn waste," he mumbled as he piloted the war machine through the debris strewn halls, he had a special person to protect after all and he wasn't about to let a dying colony get in the way of his mission.

_**Factory Roll Out Floor Ruins**_

"Take my friend then, she's a girl!" That...that annoyed the hell out of Cagalli, so much so that she ran past the trifling brat and sprinted along the catwalks, glancing down she saw a ZAFT green shirt aiming at the pretty chocolate brown haired woman from earlier, not really understanding why she did it she bellowed,

"LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!" Muscle memory did the woman well, she spun around and fired a three round burst at her would be killer, lucky her she hit because a moment later the rifle clicked empty. Not five seconds later the boy that tried to shove her into a 'Save me!' can ran up behind her, before he could admonish her the woman on the floor began yelling,

"Come down here!" the boy made some prattle about hitting the other shelters but _another_ series of explosions ripped through the sector he was pointing at causing him to drop his arm in shock.

"Lovely, lets go see if that lady can pilot that mobile suit, even if she can barely make the damn thing move its better then being in the open!" The boy nodded and as she ran for the stairs she watched him dive off the stairwell and land on the mobile suit below, 'hell only person I know who can do that is Duo!' she thought in surprise. As she made it to the floor the woman with the rifle tossed the now useless weapon aside and began firing with a sidearm, a man in a red space suit began firing at her and she went down in a spray of blood.

Cagalli didn't know the woman, she didn't even support the military she was part of, but she had seen her eyes and recognized the soft soul within, so when her rage took over at seeing her hurt she had no compunctions about pulling the sidearm Duo insisted she carried out and began firing on the red shirt. As this was happening the annoying boy had reached the wounded woman and looked up in fear at the soldier charging him with a knife, he looked shocked as he muttered something but soon her pistol rounds hit their mark catching the ZAFT soldier in the left arm.

Crying in pain he cancelled his charge and rushed over to the only other remaining mobile suit and entered its cockpit, rushing over to the boy and woman Cagalli grabbed the still stunned youth by the collar and tossed him into the mobile suits cockpit, gently helping the woman up she began pulling her in as well.

"Thanks for the assist young lady," the woman said, well at least _someone_ around here recognized her sex, the woman then hopped into the seat and Cagalli shoved herself into the cramped left side of the machine while the boy took up the right.

"Not a problem ma'am, I'm Cagalli by the way," as she said this the cockpit hatch closed and the woman shakily brought the enormous machine to a sitting position,

"Call me Murrue, Lieutenant Murrue Ramius," As the war machine stood strait the boy spoke up,

"I'm Kira, Kira Yamato, pleased to make your acquaintance," both women grunted noncommittally as they observed the burning colony around them, Cagalli sighed and spoke up first,

"Well...now what?"

**_Lost in Heliopolis _**

Duo wasn't lost _per say, _no, it was more like he was...attempting to find his way, yeah much better way of putting it, honestly he wasn't lost, no sirree. He'd been bumbling around the damaged corridors long enough that he'd already deactivated the Hades' phase shift armor to conserve the battery, grimacing at that he couldn't help but roll his eyes,

"Lack of propellant, lack of armor, lack of ammo, all things I've had to deal with before, but having to deal with operating on less electrical power then a golf cart, new one, Ch-rist I wish I was back home in Orb." With that he drifted into _another_ abandoned store room, turning on his spot lights his frown turned right the hell upside down as he saw the weapons racks lining the wall.

All his unfinished Blitz unit had was the ganked anti-ship sword, and the lines of new found weapons were a godsend, looking about he snagged a small red shield with a pair of underslung beam cannons and lashed it to his left arm, the rest of the equipment seemed to be fairly specific, mostly intended for the Buster and Aegis. Still perusing his new find the wall suddenly exploded taking everything else with it and sending his suit flying through the opposite hall,

"Oh goddamnit!" He screamed as the Hades rolled to a stop, bringing the unit to a crouch he stared at the burning store room with malice, "Imma find the bastard that keeps blowing everything up around me and I'm gonna teach him what it means to irk a Gundam pilot..." Bringing the machine to its full height he restarted his wanderings once again while wondering what ancient deity he'd pissed off to deserve all these headaches.

_**On the frontline**_

"Bitch are you crazy?!" Cagalli screamed as the recently reawakened Murrue took a few potshots at the highschoolers screwing around on the fed mobile suit. The woman seemed a bit upset at her reaction, like it was perfectly normal to start plinking 9mm rounds at curious teenagers, Murrue then went on a tear about keeping military secrets secure and demanding peoples names. Asinine, completely asinine, if this woman (who she had helped keep alive by the way) expected her to stay with her and the feds she had another thing coming, even if she wasn't Orb royalty Duo would never tolerate such behavior; the young mans normally grey knight outlook went very white when it came to her well being.

That was _probably_ why her dad let her wander off with the violet eyed trouble maker so much, he'd keep her safe regardless...unfortunately this thought renewed her worry for her still absent friend, "Be safe Duo..." she muttered.

_**Finally finding his way**_

"FINALLY" Duo cheered to himself as he exited the ravaged factory district, looking about at the damage he decided to activate the mirage colloid cloak system, it was an energy hog and not nearly as useful as the Deathscythe's hyper jammers but it was better then nothing. Lifting off the ground he let zero G do its thing and slowly maneuvered about the area taking in the rather impressive amount of property damage, eventually he spotted one of the feds Gundam knockoffs crouched next to a group of...he zoomed in and sighed in relief.

"Cagalli and a bunch of school kids, well...if you're out there and listening god..thanks..." at that there was an explosion on the colony wall and a badly damaged Mobius Zero went spinning out of control as a CGUE charged down at the group with its sword drawn. "On second thought..." Charging the Hades forward Duo prepped the massive sword and intercepted the white ZAFT unit, dropping his cloak he screamed, "SLASH SLASH SLASH!" as he cleaved off both of its legs and its right arm.

If truth were to be told the goggling stares from all the onlookers _and_ his target made the past half hour of being lost (...not lost...exploring...yeah...) totally worth it, swinging his sword a final time the blade bit into the units head and sent the suit careening backwards. Cackling to himself Duo too was suddenly sent flying as the shipping distract exploded and one helluva impressive looking warship flew through the flames. Glancing back up his eyes widened in horror as the damaged CGUE brought its gatling shield to bear and began firing on the fed suit and the civilians surrounding it.

Before he could do anything the machine stood and activated its phase shift armor blocking the shots while unlocking a gun from its back that looked disturbingly like Wing Zero's buster rifle, before he could yell at the idiot to not fire such a thing in a colony the powerful energy weapon spat forth its wrath. All present watched in trepidation as the blast clipped the CGUE's left arm and proceeded to burn a clean circular hole through the thick outer colony wall; landing beside the group Duo could only watch as the CGUE he messed up made a beeline out of the newly created exit.

Sighing Duo brought Hades down to a crouch beside what looked to be a Strike model and popped the cockpit, stepping out onto the units cupped hand he yelled out,

"Yo! Look'in for a hot little blonde with gold eyes and a bad attitude, ya'all seen her?!" There was some laughter from the group as a now blushing Cagalli stomped forth with her hands on her hips,

"Duo Maxwell!" How dare you! And where did you get this machine, why are you piloting it and most of all WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!?" Grimacing to himself he dropped his head down in exasperation,

"Gonna be one of those days eh...oh well..." with that he grinned, "if she can yell at me that means she's alive."

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It took some time but eventually they managed to get the Strike and Hades loaded into the Archangel, which as far as warship names went Duo fully approved of the moniker. At his suggestion he and Kira, the kid who had fallen into the Strike (how you fall into a multi-billion dollar war machine was anyone's guess) had spent the past half hour grabbing anything that could be considered vaguely useful and tossing it into the empty hangers.

The officer who seemed to be in command of the ground forces, Murrue something or other had nodded in approval when Duo had brought back the raided contents of a local coffee house and a still loaded water truck hence earning her respect. Something he'd learned working with Sally Po, don't get between an officer and her coffee if you want to live, expedite the marriage of said officer to said coffee and earn a promotion. With the local area scourged clean of food, fuel, and bullets he and Kira disembarked from their respective machines.

Kira's gaggle of friends all rushed up to him as Cagalli ran towards the Hades, stopping before Duo she slapped him, hard, then grabbed him in a ferocious bear hug,

"Don't. Ever. Scare. Me. Like. That. Again." Resisting the urge to call her Hilde he busted out laughing,

"A'it princess, I promise, oh hell here comes the fuzz." With that a group of soldiers led by a very attractive but stern looking woman approached the collected students and erstwhile pilots, addressing the Murrue woman she all but ignored them as a man in a violet flight suit meandered up to the group, eventually Murrue got around to introducing them.

"This is Kira Yamato, I let him aboard the G Weapon and he managed to use it to defeat a GINN," oddly enough everyone sounded suspicious and shocked, as if killing a single mobile suit was a big deal...well to other people it probably was, to a Gundam pilot, not so much. Glancing over to Duo who was still struggling in a Cagalli hug Murrue grinned a bit and continued, "And this is Duo Maxwell, he apparently hijacked one of the nearly finished units from the factory and made his way to us, he's the one who manhandled that white CGUE."

Grinning the man in the flight suit shook both their hands and said,

"Name's Mu La Flaga, I'm assuming since you two were piloting those suits the men I escorted here to fly the G Weapons are dead yes?" Glancing over his shoulder to Murrue she nodded sadly, shaking his head he then smirked at Duo, "Gotta say kid I've never seen Rau Le Creuset get punked like that before, warmed my heart." The clamor from the gathered soldiers picked up at that, apparently this Ron da Croissant was a big deal, Duo decided to deflect the attention elsewhere,

"Didn't kill the bastard unfortunately, Kira managed to knock off that GINN with nothing more then a couple sharpened toothbrushes though," that got a laugh out of the older man as he gave both young men an appraising look. Tilting his head to the side he said,

"You're both Coordinators aren't you?" Cagalli tensed beside Duo as Kira's friends started, before he could say anything Kira nodded and solemnly replied,

"Yes," fuck...with that the gathered soldiers lifted their rifles and aimed at the pair of pilots, moving faster then anyone could follow Duo's arm mounted over/under sawed off shotguns fell from their hard points and landed in his hands, both pointed directly at the officers in front of him.

"Now lets be reasonable here, if I wanted any of you idiots dead I'd have shot through this floating targets reactors when I had a goddamn chance and wiped the lot of you backwards bigots out and taken my friend here back to Orb whistl'in Dixie the entire way. That being said if you want your only three officers to remain unventilated, I suggest you drop your goddamn weapons." Mu seemed unfazed but Murrue and the black haired chick actually looked terrified, good, before anything...rash happened one of Kira's friends jumped in front of him,

"Did you idiots not see what happened out there?! If it wasn't for Kira and Duo we'd all be dead and this ship sunk! This is your goddamn war not ours we don't give a damn about how someones born, back off!" With that the others nodded and stood before the soldiers, before he could say anything Cagalli pushed down both his arms and stood before him interposing herself in front of the rifles, hissing quietly for her to move she put a hand behind her back and gave him the finger...yeah...there was a reason they were friends. Murrue then motioned to the soldiers,

"Stand down, they are obviously not threats," The bitch with black hair , Natarle, tried to argue against it but it seemed that at least one person on this boat wasn't sipping the Kool-aid, after talking everyone down Murrue looked towards Kira,

"You came here to avoid the war, didn't you?" Nodding the boy sighed,

"Yes, I wanted no part in it, especially being a first generation Coordinator, I have no interest in seeing my parents die," the gathering then looked at Duo expectantly, staying clammed up Cagalli met his gaze and gave him the look, sighing he gave in.

"I'm third generation at the least, I have both natural and Coordinator heritage and I'm from Orb, your stupid genocidal war has nothing more to do with me then finding out what idiot in my government allowed you fascists to build your war machines on our colony. When I find that out I'm putting a goddamn bullet in their head and going home, you can go play 'Springtime for Hitler' without me and mine." To say that didn't go over well was an understatement, although he did note that both Mu and Murrue looked at him sadly, 'Ah, they know they're on the wrong side, honors a bitch though and they're stuck.'

Shrugging again he slid the shotguns back up his sleeves, "On that note ZAFTs not any better and I have no intention of aiding them, lucky for you lot my good friend here is stuck on your boat and I'm inclined to keep her safe." Nodding sadly Murrue continued to calm the gathers soldiers as Mu sighed in what seemed to be genuine exasperation,

"Hell I was only curious, sorry kids I didn't mean for you to get the Geheime Staatspolizei reception for my question," with that the first actual glare he'd seen pass the mans face was shot at Natarle who seemed a bit shocked at the statement. Finally realizing his ability to care had long worn out Duo pushed past the gathered adults (while making sure to not be impolite to Mu or Murrue)

"Yeah yeah I gotchya old timer, I need some shut eye todays frankly sucked, where's the pilots ready room?" Snorting a man in a mechanics outfit stepped forward motioning for him and Cagalli to follow,

"Names Murdoch, follow me kid I'll show you to the daybed crash rack," following the man they entered the room and both collapsed on the hard bed, sighing he glanced over to Princess,

"Isn't this a little indecent yer highnessness?" Groaning she threw an arm around him and covered his mouth with her hand,

"Shut it Maxwell, lets get some sleep," Smirking he closed his eyes and followed her orders.


	3. Chapter 3

**So this whole thing? Started on a whim, that being said I'm having fun with it, I'm building up a bit on Duo's past (the plague that killed Solo) and expanding on how Duo effects those around him. After Artemis (next chapter) there will be three POV's, Duo, Cagalli, and Kira, but I want to stay outta Kira's head until he's done dealing with those idiots. **

**As for pairing since it was asked, Duo x Cagalli (eventually, I like teasing them) Athrun x Lacus, and something I personally accept as a challenge because I hate her, Kira x Flay. Why? Honestly, because I can see her viewpoint even though I can't agree on it, so I'm going to have fun with this alternate timeline making her _slightly_ more likable. **

**This is about 1k words shorter then I want it to be but to be honest with the limited PoV I've taken with this fic there is little else I can throw in till next episode, if you guys think I should expand it beyond what I'm dubbing as the 'Big Three' lemme know ok? I'm thinking Mu simply because I like him but meh, wanna hear opinions.**

* * *

Cagalli groggily awoke hugging a large warm pillow that smelled of conditioner and smoke, shifting a bit the pillow began moving as well causing her to snap her eyes open in shock. That was not a pillow she was cuddling up against, that was a very comatose Duo, blushing profusely she made to move away from him slowly as to not wake him, if she did she'd never hear the end of this. As she slowly let him go and shifted her arm from under his head her attention was drawn to yelling outside the door, the argument soon woke Duo and he sat up staring at the door with something approaching disgust.

He glanced over to Cagalli who was still blushing but he made no mention of it, just a quick "Heyya beautiful" and he was at the door sliding it open observing the high schoolers from earlier yelling at Lieutenant Ramius. She was breaking down why no one could be let off the ship and why they needed Kira to fight, Kira for his part eventually snapped out,

"You people aren't fair!" Much to her chagrin Duo busted out laughing at this, he doubled over and had to catch his breath a couple times while the group stared at him incredulously. Eventually calming down but still chuckling he stood up strait and stared Kira in the eyes.

"Kid, seriously? Life ain't fair, it never has been and it never will be," Kira's friends looked like they were about to interrupt but Duo raised his hand to silence them. "You think its fair for a single mom to suffer working three jobs to support her kids to only have them killed by a drunk driver? Do you think its fair that a pious man dies from a disease that could be cured if he was wealthier?"

Grimacing as if remembering an old memory he continued, "Do you think its fair that war orphans are forced into ghettos to die in impoverished quarantine so the plague dropped on them for population control can do its work? Do you think its fair when entire populations are immolated in nuclear fire for no other reason then someone in power didn't like the way they had been born, something they had no control over?"

Laughing again Duo pushed Kira against the wall and grinned at him maliciously, "Grow. The. Fuck. Up. Boy. Now you and I are gonna go get into those Federal excuses for Gundams, we're going to kill the hell out of anything that threatens this ship and those we care for stuck on it, and we're going to keep the emo levels to a minimum, savvy?" With that Duo let the boy go and walked past Murrue and Cagalli winking at the pair as he began whistling towards the hangers, the older woman caught Cagalli's eye and whispered,

"I like him, nice catch young lady," leaving the Princess to blush and stutter in her doorway Murrue left for the bridge while Kira's friends looked about sheepishly not sure what to say or do. Sighing Cagalli rubbed her face in frustration and made to follow Duo to the hangers. The girl, Miriallia called to her,

"Where are you going off to?" Snorting at that she twirled a finger in the air and said,

"Someones gotta make sure the dumbass takes the parking brake off, get Kira moving all right? Something tells me we're going to be facing more then one incompetent GINN this time around." Snorting at this while smiling slightly Mirallia agreed and tried shaking Kira out of the shock Duo put him in, honestly some people just couldn't take reality checks.

* * *

Duo _really_ shouldn't have been that rough on Kira, he knew this but the kid was still living in a black and white world not realizing outside of a remarkable few everyone and everything existed in grey scale, Duo had just seen and done too much in his life to put up with the whining. He'd literally been responsible for the deaths of thousands while instigating a world wide insurrection at the same time Kira was studying and attempting to half heartily to get laid, it was just too hard to take him seriously.

They may be the same age but their maturity was leagues apart, stopping suddenly his face fell at that thought, grabbing a hand bar on the wall he began lightly hitting his forehead against a window. That was how Cagalli found him, a bemused smirk on her face as she quirked an eyebrow at the antics waiting expectantly for an explanation. He stopped and stared at her with pained eyes,

"I just realized outside of you I'm the most mature teenager on this entire boat, _me_, I swear Qatty and Wu-man would never let me live this one done, and if they did Heero and Trowa would remind them about it constantly...ugh..." He'd never explained to her exactly where he was from but he did let her in on his buddies and their personalities, so she smiled a bit wider and patted him on the back with a "there there." Pouting now he stood up strait and continued his was to the hanger while his still amused friend said,

"I'm sure they'd get a kick out of it, by the by you were a little rough on Kira, outside of dealing with Coordinator prejeduce he's lived a fairly sheltered life, might want to take it easy on him." At that he just shrugged and gave a slight grunt, seeing that she wasn't dropping it he rolled his eyes,

"Fine fine I'll lay off him in so long as he doesn't whine every time things go pear shaped alright?" Accepting this they both swayed a bit as the ship lifted off, catching her by the small of the back Duo kept her steady as the ship reached its equilibrium. They stayed in companionable silence as they entered the hanger and approached Hades, Cagalli gave him a quick hug then he road the gantry arm up to the cockpit, glancing at the right shoulder he couldn't help but raise his eyebrows seeing the massive gatling gun sitting atop it.

Turning to Murdoch who was sealing the last few bolts of the device Duo whistled to grab the tanned mans attention, making eye contact he pointed at the addition while cocking his head, this just earned a grin from the older man.

"Ya like? Since your right shoulder was unfinished and Mirage Colloid is evenly spread to any conductive surface attached to the suit I used a few spare parts from the Strike to give you an equipment rack pauldron. Since ya seem fond of your big ass sword I threw on the multi-weapon combo pod, so you have a pair of missile launchers and a 120mm gatling gun." Grinning Duo gave him a thumbs up, the man had even stripped off the extra armor fins to lighten up the load so Duo couldn't complain, remembering the damage Wing Zero could do with its gatlings he spoke up,

"Any chance you can mirror that on the other pauldron eventually, I like me some extra boom," Nodding slowly while rubbing his chin Murdoch then grinned,

"Yeah kid shouldn't be a problem, also that shield you found? Was a heavy assault variant for the Aegis, it took a bit but we wired it into your power systems, don't go nuts with it though those double cannons will drain the batteries like nothing else." Giving the man a jaunty salute Duo dove into the cockpit and began the bootup process, wincing as the horrid acronym spelling out "G.U.N.D.A.M." flashed across the screen Murdoch stuck his head into the enclosed space with a final question. "Any other special orders? After we finish the repairs to the Mobius Zero we literally have nothing else to fix with only three machines to maintain," nodding he threw his idea out,

"Yeah, can you mod one of the extra anti-ship swords? I'd like the handle and guard doubled in length and the gun internals removed, they don't work like...at all so might as well ditch the extra mass," promising to look into it Murdoch hoped onto the gantry and began lowering it. Looking up from his work he watched as Cagalli approached Kira and his friends, she put a hand on his shoulder and whatever she said seemed to calm him down, 'atta girl princess' he thought with a smile.

As the hangers cleared of everyone not directly related to launching mobile suits the Strike left its restraints and walked over to its loading bay, Duo flicked a switch and mirrored the action and the Hades began its slow walk to catapult. Snatching his pilfered sword off the floor (that some kind engineer took the time to spraypaint gray rather then baby blue) Duo settled in to do every soldiers favorite past time, hurry up and wait. The comms warbled a bit as he heard Murdoch yell,

"Load up the Aile pack on the strike, since the Bli...Hades is using the anti-ship sword we shouldn't double up the melee!" He wracked his brain at that...'aile aile, right, French, means wing,' his thoughts stopped as he grinned, well, more parallels to home. Before he actually realized what was going on he was suddenly thrown back into his seat as the Hades was propelled out into the open air, leveling the machine he pulled up beside Kira,

"Remember what I said about fair Kira? That includes fights, fair has no place in the battlefield, if someones fighting for honor use that against them, fight to win, fight dirty, and most of all fight for something worth killing for, good luck." With that Duo activated the Mirage Colloid and made his way towards the formation of GINN's and...the Aegis, wunderbar... clicking the comm one last time he said,

"Kid distract that Gundam, I know its alot to handle but I need these GINN's dead ASAP, frigg'en things are loaded out with 'D' equipment, crazy bastards," ignoring Kira's protests Duo charged ahead and was actually shocked at the ferocity of the assault. The lead GINNN charged towards the Strike heedless of the flak flying its way and fired the big ass plasma cannon resting on its shoulder, the winged gundam juked out of the way as the beam burned through one of the tethers keeping the central spine of the entire colony stable. Lovely.

Much to his surprise the Aegis was just kinda, flitting about uselessly, Kira seemed oddly distracted by it which wasn't good since the cannon totting GINN was literally blasting the hell out of the colony trying to hit Kira, rolling his eyes Duo decloaked behind the machine.

Sweeping his blade to the side Duo cleaved the suit in two at the pelvis, the now legless GINN spun around but before it could fire he cleaved its right arm off and kicked the near limbless torso away, detecting a massive series of explosions Duo turned and..stopped. He'd been too late, the GINN's (and apparently by accident the Archangel's) constant misses had honed in on the largest structure in the area...the central spine.

Before he could do anything else Heliopolis just simply...seized to be, the massive O'Neil cylinder began disintegrating almost instantly, the Aegis rushed forward to assist the trashed GINN he'd affectionately named 'Torso Boy' and tried to rush the Strike but the hurricane force winds sucked the machine away. Suddenly realizing he was in the same boat Duo activated a full burn towards the Archangel, nearly burning out the mobile suits propellant and power (that wasn't getting old in the slightest) Duo semi-crashed Hades onto the flight deck.

Throwing his head back and letting out a sigh Duo looked out the still open hanger and simply watched the world fall apart, 'Reminds me of the space around Libra...' he considered this a moment before walking the machine to its station and plugging in, 'ah well...time to catch a nap.'

* * *

After checking up on a rather irate Duo Cagalli made her way to the bridge, as the door opened she heard Ensign Natarle yelling into the comm,

"There's no way we can accept refugees at this time!" Before Cagalli could give the woman a piece of her mind Lieutenant Ramius dropped her head and said,

"All right. I authorize it." As the raven haired woman tried to argue with her the Lieutenant cut her off, "I don't have time to waste fighting over such things, hurry up and get them on board, we need to leave." As Natarle begrudgingly followed her orders Cagalli couldn't help but grin at their erstwhile captain, say what you will about the feds there were a few good ones in the bunch.

Realizing that a bunch of irate refugees had a fifty/fifty chance of ending up in the same bay as Duo Cagalli's eyes widened as she bolted for the elevator, nothing good could come from this. When the door opened she saw a thoroughly bemused Duo drifting across the hanger with his arms crossed observing Kira gettings tackled by a cute redhead, looking towards the elevator Duo caught her eyes and wiggled his eyebrows suggestivly then jerked his head towards Kira.

"Little Casanova over there, from what I'm hearing she's one of those other teens girlfriends, we my dear princess just landed ourselves into a soap opera." Groaning at that she drifted over to Duo and grabbed him by the waist to stabilize smacking him on the forehead,"

"Stop it, not everyone is as much of a fan of chaos as you," grinning mischievously he returned the gesture albeit far more lightly,

"Meh, you know you love it, so he's responsible for saving her life, she seems..." Cagalli smirked and said,

"Needy?" nodding knowingly he then continued,

"I give it two weeks, three tops before they either hate each other or start sleeping together, wanna wager?" Snorting at her friends lewd mind she pulled out a fifty note,

"Ok dibs on them screwing," Pouting Duo pulled out a few more bills then shoved them in his pocket,

"Cheater, stole my bet, fine I'll play the other side on this one," not realizing it her smirk stayed planted on her face as she rested her head on his shoulder drifting through the hanger, 'Its the little things' she thought happily.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N-Way way way shorter then I wanted it to be, but my computer ate the other half of this and I have absolutely no desire to rewrite it at the moment. If its too short sorry, I'll give the next chapter a proper once over to make up for what was lost. Way rougher then I like too but seriously just lost 1500 words. So. Pissed. Off.**

**The song used is Jen Titus "Oh Death", look it up on youtube while you read, its fun.**

* * *

Duo drifted towards the pilots ready room and keyed the doors open in time to hear Kira say, "We're all that there is to defend the ship right...so its what we have to do," smiling at that Duo stopped before the pair nodding in approval, glancing over to Mu he raised a brow and asked,

"So, gotta plan for this one...boss?" Smirking the older man nodded while glancing towards Kira,

"So here's the deal Kira is going to play goalie for us while I harrie anything that gets close, while we make noise you stealth out to the Nazca class blocking our path to Artemis and mess it up as best you can, after you're done we all run like hell back the Archangel and skedaddle." Nodding his approval Duo begin slipping on one of the ill fitting Federal flight suits,

"So, is my objective sinking the ship or simply crippling it?" Sighing lightly Mu looked over his shoulder towards Duo,

"Don't over extend yourself, if you can sink it great, if not just cripple it, we don't need any more dead heroes ok?" Pausing at that, Duo shifted his eyes towards Mu then gave a noncommittal grunt, once his gear was set he slung on a pistol belt and clipped on his helmet. Before he left for the hangers he asked,

"How quickly does ZAFT repair their mobile suits?" Slightly perplexed by the question Mu shrugged,

"Less then a few hours, they designed them to be modular, why?" Grinning as he closed the suits mirrored visor he simply replied with,

"No reason at all," before the door slammed shut behind him, drifting down the corridors he saw the queen of uptightness herself rushing towards him, grabbing Duo's shoulder as he tried to drift by Natarle barked out,

"Kira wait!" Pausing, he lifted his helmet with a laugh and gave her a broad smile,

"Sorry Ensign Badgiruel, got the wrong guy, he's still in the ready room getting a pep talk from Mu, anything I can help you with?" She stared at him a moment and Duo realized she had the same vivid violet eyes as himself, what caught him off guard was she also held the same calculating gaze he'd always been accused of having; though in his defense he never looked that cold.

"Mr. Maxwell, why are you fighting for us, really? You're a coordinator, and you have a mobile suit that only you or Kira could use, what is stopping you from just taking off with your friend and running to ZAFT?" That...was unexpected, well from her, Murrue he could see asking honest questions, Natarle seemed like the interogating type, whips and chains and the like, shrugging he gave her another grin.

"Allow me to reintroduce myself my lovely ensign, the names Duo Maxwell, I may run and hide but I'll never tell a lie, I initially attacked the ZAFT forces because they were about to fire on civillians, a big no no in my book." Putting his index finger to his chin and glancing up at the ceiling he mulled over what to tell her then figured to hell with it,

"I'm no stranger to killing and in my opinion it really doesn't matter how a person is born, these idiots aren't my 'brethren', they're a group of supremacists who are attempting to kill my friend seeing as she's stuck on this crate. You people are not my allies because you follow the commands of fascists who started this war solely to commit genocide, which incidently is what kicked off the coordinators superiority complex."

He'd give her this, it looked like his words were having some impact rather then angering her, with that he pressed on, "I am a soldier of Orb and I have no intention of putting my extensive chaos inducing abilities to use for either side of this war, I'll cut down anything that gets in our way but I refuse to do _anything_ that will draw my nation into this conflict." Not wasting a moment she struck back with,

"Mr. Maxwell its not like we all share the far rights views, we're mostly just soldiers following orders, don't you see that?" She technically brought up a valid argument, though for some reason she sounded rather strained after his monologue, so either something was getting through or he was just seriously pissing her off. To be truthful with him it could really swing either way, leaning against the wall crossing his arms he dropped his head and signed,

"Ensign...if your orders are to kill another group of people simply because they're different well... Nuremberg showed how well "following orders" holds up in the court of law, just remember that ok?" Smirking as he slid his helmet back on his now muffled voice ending the conversation, "So in short? I'm not helping you, I'm helping Cagalli and myself, the moment I'm ordered to start marching children to the showers I'll sink this ship with a smile on my face, with that, see you on the other side."

* * *

"Hades, Launching," Duo announced as the massive warship shook with the suits departure, glancing up from her position in the CIC Natarle Badgiruel was lost in her own thoughts, the kids they'd picked up on Heliopolis (and they were seriously just kids) had altogether been a pain in her ass since the moment they came aboard. Duo though... Duo was different, he constantly acted relaxed as if reality was the punchline to a joke only he was in on, but when it was time to be serious he was the deadliest man in the room.

That was what bothered her, he couldn't be any older then sixteen and he behaved like a hardened special forces operative, joking and snarking one second and holding an entire hanger hostage at gunpoint the next. She was snapped out of her thoughts as Lieutenant Ramius ordered her to fire, double checking the target angle she barked out,

"Lock on to the Nazca with the Lohengrin's. _FIRE!_" with that the positron cannon spat forth their fury towards the enemy ship consuming any debris the beams struck in anti-matter fueled explosions, as the beams rushed onward they heard ...giggling on the main channel.

"Hehehe...Ensign you have a penchant for destruction, maybe I was wrong about you, free Saturday?" Caught completely off guard by Duo's comment she only managed to make a strangled stuttering noise before Cagalli cut in,

"Great Duo you broke her, you're paying for the replacement XO by the way," Natarle could hear snickering from up above at the young mans pouting response,

"But I only make six monies a year Cagalli, you're a cruel boss you know that? Oh side note, those amateurs in the knockoff Gundams are heading your way, make sure Mu and Kira do their thing." Rolling her eyes at the byplay Natarle muttered,

"Why me?" as she ordered the Igelstellungs and Helldarts to fire on the approaching mobile suits, with that the return fire set of various explosions around the ship as the four Gundams tried to shoot down Mu and Kira, after a few minutes a very annoyed Lieutenant La Flaga piped in.

"Kira for the love of god _lead_ your shots, shoot where they're going to be not where they are all right?" After a stuttering affirmative Kira let out a yelp and then a quick snicker,

"Just took out the duels right arm at the shoulder, the open channel is getting flooded with insults," Natarale smirked at that then clicked the comm,

"Kira hit the arm with an ID tag, we can pull it back in later for salvage," after a short pause Kira, Mu, and Duo began chuckling and there was a united, very piratey sounding "Arrrr" heard. Groaning while holding her forehead Natarale eventually let out a small smirk, 'Meh, why not.'

* * *

As Duo spun Hades through the maze of debris leading to the prowling Nazca cruiser he mulled over how to pull this off, flashy or quick? He REALLY had no desire to kill any of these idiots and he'd don't a pretty good job of avoiding it thus far, so with that he decided flashy and _memorable_. Plugging his phone into the broadcast system he scrolled to the song he wanted then allowed a small self satisfied smile to crest his lips; as he approached the skulking cruiser he risked his cloak with a tight beam laser signal and hacked into the ships internal comms ready for one helluva prank.

* * *

Rau Le Crueset was not a happy man, while the captured G-Weapons had the capacity to usher in the Armageddon he desired this bloody irritating legged ship would just not _die, _this sad state of affairs drastically limited what he wanted to accomplish. He'd barely rolled the Vesalius away from the path of the damnable enemies cannons when a signal breached the comms, a ghostly chorus began playing making all the crew pause in their actions, soon a haunting female voice sang out.

_"Oh death, oh death, oh-oh death, won't you spare me over another-" _with that there was a massive crash as one of the main guns exploded as it was struck by a pair of beam shots from nowhere, Rau began screaming for CWIS fire as the song continued.

"_But what is this, that I can't see with ice cold hands taking hold of me-" _ another heavy hit struck the ship destroying the last of the main cannons, as a monitor exploded Rau cried out in pain as the plastic shrapnel cut into his flesh. Gritting his teeth through the pain he glared out the window as that fucking song kept playing,

_"When God is gone and the Devil takes hold, who will have mercy on your soul oh death, oh death" _With that the main engines took a direct hit their detonation sending shock waves through the crippled vessel sending most everyone flying; as he slammed into the wall face first Rau felt at least two teeth break upon impact. Covering his mouth to staunch the blood he glanced out the window to see machine gun fire appear from nowhere and shred his entire starboard sides CWIS clusters. Growling he could do nothing but stare through the smoke clouded window as his ship was chewed apart,

_"Oh, Death, __No wealth, no ruin, no silver, no gold, __Nothing satisfies me but your soul," _and with that the last of his weapons were destroyed leaving the Vesalius as little more then a floating box in space.

_"Oh, Death, Well I am Death, none can excel, I'll open the door to heaven or hell." _As this line finished the entire ship shook from an unseen impact, suddenly a pair of glowing yellow eyes could be seen hovering before the hanger doors, malevolent embers in a sea of black.

_"Oh, Death, оh Death, my name is Death and the end is here..."_ The song ended as the enemy mobile suit dropped its cloak, the black and red demon sporting a massive sword in its hands. Gritting his teeth Rau recognized the machine as the one that had torn him apart inside the colony, the machine turned around and carved the hanger door open and wormed its way inside.

After a few moments the ship shook from several internal explosions. As suddenly as it appeared the enemy suit flew out of the hanger hauling..._his_ personal CGUE. The enemy that he now identified as a Blitz variant proceeded to give the bridge the finger with its off hand while wrapping its sword arm around the CGUE's shoulders, and then the machine simply flew off leaving them adrift.

* * *

Cagalli released her death grip on the control stick of the CWIS cluster she'd taken over, letting her hands drop away from the controls she threw her head back into the rest and groaned as the past half hours adrenaline melted away leaving her a tense mess. The enemy G-Weapons had all taken some rather heavy damage and ran away to cover the escape of their badly crippled mothership, good for them. Stumbling to her feet she made her way to the hangers to meet up with Duo, the elevator opened as the Hades pulled in and she realized the now gray toned machine was hauling a ZAFT suit behind it.

A grinning Mr. Maxwell popped out of the now parked Hades cockpit and she heard him talking in fast bubbly bursts to the mechanics,

"Dudes totally ganked that "Ron the Toast's" CGUE, you guys figure out how to hook beam weapons up to it and I'll rewrite its OS for Mu!" Turning to face the now ballistically approaching Princess Duo's grin widened as he kicked off the captured machine catching Cagalli midflight. As she began quickly asking him if he was all right the man in question began tickling her until she pulled a gun on him, this only made Duo laugh harder. After a few minutes the pair simply drifted along the hanger, content to let the adults handle all the BS for once.


	5. Chapter 5

_**The reason this took so long is I really hated this episode and I had no idea where to take it without dragging it out further torturing myself, so instead its mostly Duo antics and rather light on detail. Don't worry next one will be significantly longer and won't take me so long to update, the problem with SEED was it just didn't hit it's own stride until they landed on Earth, emulated the One Year War too much. Anywho, enjoy and review, and yes I'm aware this is below my normal standards but as stated, when you don't enjoy it you can't really force the effort.**_

* * *

Duo was for want of a better word annoyed, seriously he'd called this one the second they were hailed by the backwater base and even Kira had been on board with his paranoia, he and the kid hit Mwu with their suspicions and the older man agreed completely. So the three of them agreed to rig the trio of mobile suits to blow if an unauthorized person tried to move them, this bit of sabotage led to his being the only undetained member of the Archangel's crew. True to form he had hidden when the ship had been swarmed and there was now a bunch of heavily armed German's between him and Cagalli. While he really wouldn't mind indulging in a bit of kraut kontrol to get to his friend to safety he had a unique opportunity available to him that he hoped his friend would forgive him for.

Knocking out one of the guards and taking his gear (how many times had he done this in the past year and a half?) he suited up and marched right past the base commander as the pompous ass was led to where the crew was being held. Making a note to kill the gloating prick before he left Duo wandered to a data terminal and pulled up a base map,

"It never ceases to amaze me how otherwise intelligent people do such idiotic things as leaving _labeled_ schematics of their bases out for anyone to find...ugh..." finding what he was looking for Duo entered one of the bases secured communication centers. This one being a tertiary backup so hopefully no one would come a knock'in until he was done, hacking the system (which as always he felt like it had been programmed by a drunk student who didn't notice the keyboard was upside down) he opened the secure line to Earth.

Snickering at how incredibly easy this was he double checked his encryption and contacted his boss, after a few minutes the lovely Erica Simmons appeared on screen distractedly looking at something at her side,

"Morgenroete, what do you want?" Grinning widely he drawled out,

"Well hello beautiful, is that any way to greet your protege?" Snapping her head to the monitor she grabbed the device pulling it closer,

"DUO MAXWELL! Where the _HELL_ have you been and is the Princess alright?!" Scratching his head sheepishly he chuckled weakly before responding,

"We were checking a lead on one of the families illegally producing mobile suits with the Atlantic Federation on Heliopolis...they were, and err...ZAFT found out and kind of blew up the colony. Well it was a group effort whoever the hell was firing the guns on the Archangel is kinda trigger happy, anyway Cagalli and I hitched a ride with a handful of survivors and what was left of the ships crew. Kinda running from ZAFT and I've had to fight in a knockoff Gundam with another coordinator, kids a natural but he has some growing up to do.

"Annnnyway we're kinda being held at gunpoint by the Euro Feds at Artemis so they can steal our shit, everything is rigged to blow if they get any wise ideas so I decided to step out and make a call before ZAFT comes and blows this place up. They have a stealth suit that's like a knockoff Deathscythe so my guess is they'll wait for the umbrella to come down and wreak havoc, what I would do."

Erica was staring at him blankly before she facepalmed, sliding her hand across her face she muttered a few obseneties then just shook her head,

"Only you, if its any concelation Uzumi found out about the suits and is applying some political pressure to keep it quiet, the Seiran's are trying to pin the destruction of Heliopolis on him to force him to step down so who knows how long that'll last." Duo frowned at this before quipping,

"How _is_ Assclown anyway?" Smirking she rolled her eyes,

"Juna was just let out of traction last week, the bones are still mending and he's still furious about the wedding contract being put under review, apperently word got out what you did to him when he grabbed Cagalli's bum at the party so his social standing is in the gutter. Probably why his father is pushing this so hard, doesn't matter though times short, what do you need?" Clearing his throat he gave her a winning smile,

"Things are getting hot out here, I highly suggest we push production of the home grown suits and the Cancer's, I know we're banking on the Gundams but the Sepulcher can only produce so much alloy and we'll be lucky if we have all four up and running before we're pulled into this." Erica nodded knowingly as she began typing quickly,

"Upgrades to the Deathscythe are 90% complete, the Persephone is roughly 70% complete, and the three Wing units are all at about 50%, the girls have been running the sims you set up nonestop so hopefully with them supporting us..." She sighed while rubbing the bridge of her nose, "Well hopefully it'll be enough," the connection nearly cutout as the bases lights flickered, grinning Duo move to put his helmet back on,

"Well looks like the parties started, tell Uzumi that I'm keeping Cagalli safe and I'll be home as soon as I can, take care boss." Smiling in return the connection was lost before she could respond, running down the hall to his secondary target he grinned seeing the panicking guard turn to him as he began babbling in moonspeak. Smashing the man in the face with his rifle he rolled he eyes hearing the cries from the secured room, standing to the side of the door he clicked the open key.

"You can stop playacting now, come on lets skeddale I need to make sure Cagalli's ok," the befuddled faces of Natarle, Mwu, and Murrue popped out of the room looking at him in confusion, still grinning he tossed the Ensign his rifle as he picked up the knocked out feds. Natarle stared for a moment before letting out a snort and pecking him on the cheek,

"You are an impetus one, all right lead on," ignoring Mwu ribbing him for the blush he was so totally not displaying right now he led his allies through the trembling fortress.

* * *

Nicol Amalfi was a rather frustrated young man, his team had gotten the snot kicked out of them by the legged ship (who came up with that code name?) and its escorts on multiple occasions and their fearless leader had their flagship get practically gutted by his own suits cousin. That wasn't what really bothered him so much though, it was the fact that his own teammates kept calling him a coward behind his back because he didn't revel in the bloodshed and he had happened to hijack the lone stealth unit developed by the feds.

Only Athrun had approved of his plan of sneaking up on the Fed base and destroying their method of going hedgehog, and as expected it had gone off flawlessly, the feds had arrogantly lowered their defenses (including their fighter and armor patrols, idiots) leaving an opening for him to destroy the shroud projectors. So while he systematically wiped out anything stupid enough to get in the way of his ebony warmachine he contemplated what to do next, Yzak would readily kill anyone who tried to escape and Dearka would do anything that amused him at the moment. Athrun...his best friends actions over the past two weeks confused the hell out of him, he really had no idea where he stood on anything; with that his thoughts were interupted by a stream of machine gun fire.

"Hehehe, knew a fellow stealthy couldn't resist the obvious design flaw of this place, greetings names Duo Maxwell, I may run and hide but I never tell a lie!" With that a black and red version of the Blitz appeared before him wielding one hell of an oversized sword in its hands. Niclol responded by firing his anchor at this new enemy who surprised the young pilot by letting the clawed projectile latch onto his right arm, almost lazily the massive sword swung down severing the cable.

"Shit," was all Nicol could think to say, the laughing man in the enemy suit concurred,

"Quite, something to reflect on, when you're fighting someone who is also using phase shift armor it's kinda pointless to go for physical attacks, here," much to Nicol's shock the black suit jammed its sword into the floor and pried the anchor off its arm tossing it back to the Blitz.

"Wha..what I don't understand?" He stammered out in confusion catching his returned weapon, he could practically here the mans eyes roll,

"Kid I don't have any beef with you or those other idiots that keep attacking us, I'm only flying this cobbled together piece of crap because my friend and I are stuck on the Archangel, if you've noticed _I_ personally haven't killed anyone on your side yet I've only disabled them. Well when I wrecked Ron the Croissant's ship and stole his mobile suit I may have but that was just incidental, surgically disabling warships is a bit of a bitch considering I have no real experience at it. Did sink an aircraft carrier once, never figured out why the conning tower exploded though, I mean really what's in there to explode?"

Nicol just stared blankly at his monitor listening to the man jabber on, it was nice that he was trying to prevent casualties and all but...hell he really had no idea what to think about this one,

"Err...ok I guess, so if you don't want to fight me why are you still standing there?" The man laughed again, he seemed to like doing that,

"Oh heh, I'm just stalling while the Archangel escapes and the kid covers our exit, my associates are trying to gather as many poor pathetic souls as they can before he we leave, no need for the rank and file to die because of their boss, oh speaking of which!" With that a map was sent to him and it displayed a glowing dot not far from their standoff, "That's the command center, do me a favor and kill everyone in there, they're the entire reason this whole thing went down and I'd like to cleanse the gene pool of as much stupidity as possible." Once again completely befuddled Nicol just shook his head,

"Mr. Maxwell you are a very strange man, I hope we do not have to cross blades often," the enemy pilot just snickered a bit,

"Names Duo, Mr. Maxwell makes me sound like some sort of coffee pot, later kid," as the suit pulled its sword out of its impromptu sheath Nicol quickly stated,

"Its Nicol, Nicol Amalfi," the black suit gave him a jaunty salute then ran around the corner, shaking his head Nicol made his way for the command center wondering if he should relay this strange encounter to his comrades, "Eh...I'll tell Athrun, if nothing else it might put a smile on his face."

* * *

As the Archangel made its escape from the doomed Artemis station Duo looked incredulously at the large knots of Euro Feds in the hanger, there were even several Mobius mobile armor's sitting in the once vacant launching racks. He was actually fairly shocked that so many of their former captors had been willing to come along, and really while the armors were basically flying targets having extra backup couldn't hurt their chances, if nothing else they'd make adequate meatshields. Disembarking from the Hades Duo drifted down to the floor to meet up with a somewhat pouty Cagalli,

"And where pray tell were you this entire time mister?" Grinning he pulled her into a hug, she stiffened at first but melted into it after a moment, letting her go he cheerfully described his misadventure,

"...And then I screwed with the poor kids head even more by giving him the command centers coordinates, if nothing else ZAFT has no idea what to make of me and that's the way I like it," shaking her head ruefully his friend hooked her arm through his and began leading him out of the hanger.

"Well that's just...so you it isn't even funny, my day wasn't as much fun though, I had a rifle shoved in my face for two hours _but_ I did get to punch Flay in the face, after all her whining it was fairly cathartic." Curious Duo asked why, this just made her grit her teeth, "Because she outed Kira as a coordinator to the Feds," now thoroughly confused he glanced back at the parked Strike that had one Kira Yamato being hugged to suffocation by the one Flay Allster. Deciding that he had no desire to interfere in that particular mess he simply remained silent for once, after all the God of Death left the battlefield of love to its own devices, not even he was crazy enough to get involved with that.

* * *

_**I arbitrarily decided that Duo and Nicol are going to become buddies, it should be fun, later folks, and as always REVIEW!**_


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